Here are the most affordable colleges and universities in Hawaii. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you, at a price you can afford.
The majority of the universities and colleges in The Aloha State are public institutions, including Hawaiʻi’s largest school, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The nearly 15,000 students who attend this school pay tuition fees around $12,000. However, Hawaiʻi does have a few private schools, two of which have religious affiliations. While tuition at these private schools varies, from $6,000 at Brigham Young University Hawaiʻi to $26,000 at Hawaiʻi Pacific University, each serves between 2,000–3,000 students.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Students who attend higher education institutes in Hawaiʻi have the option to major in fields like biology, education, history, criminal justice, physics, and many others. However, students who graduate with degrees in the health care field have an extra advantage. Hawaiʻi offers a student loan forgiveness program for health care workers who work at designated, high-need locations within the state for at least two years. So, even though Hawaiʻi comes in just above the national average for tuition costs, if you are considering a career in health care, this may be the place for you.
Some dream of vacationing in paradise — but why not take it a step further and live there? Students attending school in Hawaiʻi won’t have to say aloha, or goodbye, to the beautiful white sand beaches, perfect waves, and tropical drinks. Students can enroll in one of Hawaiʻi’s 15 higher education institutes and live their best life in these picturesque island communities.
For more information on obtaining your degree in Hawaiʻi, explore some of the top programs and schools this state has to offer.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.
There are 5 colleges and universities in Hawaii with stated tuitions and fees under $20,000/year. The following list of the most affordable colleges and universities in Hawaii is composed entirely of schools offering bachelor’s degree programs, have stated tuition and fees near or under the national average of $16,000/year, and are fully accredited colleges.
These schools are ranked by academic excellence, and all under $20,000/year.
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
62%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/23
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
38%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1080/20
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
67%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/24
Brigham Young University–Hawaii’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$3K
Graduation
25%
Student body
2K
University of Hawaiʻi Maui College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
95%
Graduation
39%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1020/18
University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu’s faculty and alumni have been influential in: